


Wrong Place Wrong Time

by BrightTerror



Series: BrightTerror's 2020 Whumptober [4]
Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood Loss, Canon Compliant, Concussions, Earthquakes, Gen, Gil Arroyo Acting as Malcolm Bright's Parental Figure, Has spoilers for s1 finale but the fic isnt about it, Head Injury, Hurt/Comfort, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Malcolm Bright Whump, Malcolm Bright is a Danger Magnet, Post-Canon, Protective Gil Arroyo, Whump, Whumptober 2020, collapsed buildings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26818168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightTerror/pseuds/BrightTerror
Summary: Malcolm decides to try and enjoy his day off work but danger seems to find him nonetheless. He gets caught in an earthquake and it goes downhill from there.
Relationships: Gil Arroyo & Dani Powell, Gil Arroyo & JT Tarmel, Gil Arroyo & Malcolm Bright, Malcolm Bright & Dani Powell, Malcolm Bright & Sunshine the Bird
Series: BrightTerror's 2020 Whumptober [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948378
Comments: 22
Kudos: 72
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	1. Earthquake

**Author's Note:**

> This is a 4 chapter fic with 4 different whumptopber prompts, first chapter is Day 27: Earthquakes.  
> Beta read by the awesome: @Klargreeves

In his defence, this time he wasn’t looking for trouble.

Malcolm was enjoying his time off from work. It wasn’t much of a day off as it was more of a mandatory and cautionary suspension from work until the whole Endicott thing calmed down. Because even though he wasn’t the one who sliced the man’s throat he was there when Ainsley did and she was still on trial. Jessica’s multiple lawyers had it under control but it was a long process. So that’s why the precinct decided it would look better if Malcolm didn’t consult on cases for the time being. 

He had a lot of free time now and he hated it. He tried to convince Gil, Dani and even JT to let him in a case unofficially or to toss him an old cold case but they wouldn’t budge. He hated being in his apartment all the time with nothing to do. Throwing axes at his very expensive walls only kept him busy so long, and besides, his mother would throw fits every time she had to repair the walls again. 

So today, he decided to spend his day walking through the city and going inside any store that seemed interesting. He had never done this but Ainsley convinced him to. She was dealing with too much at the moment so he decided to humor her. In a few hours he bought two new axes for his collection and a new limited, first edition psychology book he hadn’t read yet. He was walking through a street near the precinct where Gil worked when he spotted a pet shop, and decided to stop by to look for more cage options for Sunshine. He tried to keep her out of her cage as much as possible but when he couldn’t be home she needed a bigger cage. 

He stepped inside the shop and started browsing through the different cages. There was no one inside at this time of day except the cashier. He found it comforting since he didn’t feel like doing lots of small talk today. 

He didn’t know how long he was there but he ended up trying to choose between a big wooden cage that was decorated as a small house with some fence doors and was about the size of Malcolm and the other one was slightly bigger than the other but the walls were of metal bars instead of wood. They both would work for Sunshine but he was currently debating whether he would get the more aesthetically pleasing one or the bigger one. 

He was standing in the middle of the aisle, hand resting on his face, arms crossed and staring at the cages, lost in thought. He didn’t notice the cashier momentarily leaving the shop to take out the trash and it took him a few seconds to process when everything around him started shaking. 

It all happened at once, the windows started rumbling as if someone was banging against them, the shelves started shaking and multiple cages and food bags started falling. He felt the ground vibrate which led to him tripping over his feet. 

Malcolm had never been in an earthquake before. In all of his childhood and adulthood he never had to worry about it. New York rarely had any earthquakes. There had barely been 500 of them in the last 300 years and when they did happen they usually weren’t big enough to be felt. When he moved to DC to work for the FBI he also did not have to worry about that either since earthquakes were not a common thing in either state. 

He tried not to panic and made an effort to clear his thoughts in order to think and recall any knowledge he had on what to do when the earth decided to try and swallow you because Malcolm was one hundred percent sure that’s what planet earth was trying to do right now. He knew that he had to have some knowledge on what to do. He was sure he was taught back in elementary school in case this ever happened. The problem for him was that he brushed it off when he learned it since he was a child and it was unlikely to happen. Besides, he was certain he would not remember it either way because a good portion of his childhood memories were currently repressed in the deep depths of his mind. 

He acted quickly and let his instincts take over. He headed towards the door frame that led to the storage of the place. He would have gone to the door but the windows and door were made of glass and without consciously thinking about it he knew he had to stay away. After all, earthquakes can make glass windows shatter and if someone is close enough they can get severely injured. 

And then it was over. 

Malcolm knew it had been only seconds, less than a minute at _most_ until the earth stopped shaking but for him it felt like an eternity. He steadied himself as the ground felt back to normal and took a second to look around the mess that was the shop. Everything had fallen down and there was pet food sprawled on the ground. 

Malcolm was relieved it was over and had come out of his first earthquake unscathed and just a bit frightened. However, he couldn’t even enjoy a few seconds of that glory when everything went from bad to worse. 

He was not able to take a step away from the door frame to leave when there was another rumbling sound and everything started moving again. He looked up and saw pieces of rubble from the roof started to fall and before he knew it, everything went dark. 


	2. Collapsed Building

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 4 of the whumptober challenge: Collapsed Buildings  
> Beta read by @klargreeves

Gil had been working with Dani and JT on a particularly boring case. They all agreed that if they had the choice they would choose the least interesting ones while Bright was gone so he didn’t miss out on a lot. It wasn’t his fault for once that he was out of work this time. Though they knew it was the safest option for everyone since Endicott was a big deal and so his murder trial was a sticky situation. 

He was currently in his office going over paperwork while Dani was reading over a file on his office couch when everything started shaking and trembling. Since the precinct has previously had various seminars on what to do on natural disaster events - one of them being earthquakes - everybody started moving out fairly quickly and contained the panic. All the officers moved away from the glass windows and once it was over they all exited the building to make sure that if there was a replica of the earthquake it wouldn’t catch them inside again. 

That’s when a few seconds later they heard a loud rumbling crash coming from afar and a few moments after they saw there was some great amounts of ash and dust starting to spread outside the windows. 

“What was that noise?” Dani asked Gil as she and the rest of the officers left the building as both a safety precaution and to see what the commotion was about. 

“I don’t know but my money is on the earthquake that caused it.” Gil frowned. “Are you both okay?” 

Dani gave a quick nod. “Physically, I’m fine. Mentally, I’m a bit shaken up but I’ll be okay. I'm not used to the earth trying to kill us.” she tried to joke. 

JT nodded too. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in one. I think last time I felt an earthquake I was still serving.” 

“I don’t think New York has had an earthquake in at least ten years. You think the rest are okay? Bright? His mother?” Dani asked. 

“I’ll call them and make sure they’re not too frightened.” Gil fished out his phone from his pocket as they all stepped outside into the street when a young officer interrupted him. 

“Lieutenant, a local pet store just collapsed two blocked from here. First responders are already on their way to help. Is it alright with you if I clock out of work early to go see if they need any help?” the cop said. 

“Sure. Do you know how many people were inside the store? Is anyone hurt?” Gil asked. 

“We don’t know yet. It  _ just _ happened. But at this time of the day it’s unlikely that the store was packed.” 

“I’ll pass by to see if there’s anything I can do to help too after I make some calls. Thanks for informing me, Jake.” Gil told the man and watched as he left.

“I’ll go with you too. If there’s people under the collapsed building or nearby they will need help.” JT said and Dani agreed with him. 

They decided to walk there, considering the streets would be filled with people dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake and it was only two blocks away. 

Gil decided to check up and call on his family as he walked. He called Jessica first, asking if she was okay. She told him that she was fine but some of her really expensive decorations had not made it. She then thanked him for checking in and hung up so she could check up on Ainsley. Gil dialled Bright’s number and waited a few rings until it went to voicemail. He tried again. He frowned and started worrying when Bright didn’t pick up his phone after the fourth call. 

By then they arrived at the scene. Gil told Dani to call Bright and to keep on trying until he picked up while he talked to some people to ask how they could help. The firemen were already there evacuating civilians from the nearby places that were starting to accumulate. Some cops had volunteered to help and had begun to help where they could. 

A few minutes later they had rescued a young woman that was close to the pet shop when the building fell down and had hurt her leg in the process. She was the cashier from the pet store. 

Gil overheard her conversation when she recalled what happened. 

“It all happened so fast,” her voice was trembling. “I was working my shift that had just started when I took out the garbage while this one costumer was looking at bird cages - oh  _ no _ , I think he was still inside when it all came down,” she cried. “It happened while I was outside and then it stopped and I was going to walk back inside to check on him when the next thing I knew I was blasted away with all the rubble.” 

The girl, Chloe, exclaimed. She then looked at the EMT who was helping her. “Is he okay? Did he get out?”

Gil tuned out the rest of the conversation as he walked towards one of the workers in charge to tell them there was at least one person under the debris and they had to help him. Whoever was unlucky enough to be stuck there reminded him of Bright. Chloe mentioned the man had been looking at bird cages. For a second he entertained the idea of the man was Malcolm, but Gil shook those thoughts away. Not everyone who liked birds and ended up in bad situations was his kid. 

He asked Dani if she was able to contact Bright but he still wouldn’t pick up. Gil told Dani and JT to go help the other cops keep the curious people that were not helping away, while he tried to call his kid one more time. He did not like the bad feeling that was starting to form in the pit of his stomach. Bright sometimes answered and sometimes he would let it go to voicemail but he knew when Gil called more than once it was important - especially after what had just happened. 

He frowned and looked at his phone screen once more to tap the call button again when he saw an incoming call from Malcolm. He felt his worry lessen just slightly as he answered it immediately. “Kid, why didn’t you answer my calls? Everything okay?”

Gil’s heart dropped to his stomach and his fear and worry returned the second he heard Malcolm’s voice. _“Gil?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be posted on oct 8! I hope y'all liked it. Please leave a comment letting me know what you thought!
> 
> Special Thanks to @AppalachianApologies for helping me brainstorm ideas for this and helping me out with writers block. She is also doing the Whumptober challenge so check it out!


	3. Don’t Say Goodbye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 8 of the whumptober challenge: "Don’t Say Goodbye"  
> Beta read by @Klargreeves

Malcolm woke up in a fit of coughs and a ringing noise piercing his ears. His head was throbbing and everything was completely dark and blurry. No, that was wrong. It wasn't  _ completely _ dark. He could see light but it wasn’t  _ right.  _ It only took him a few seconds to realise why and it was the same reason that caused his coughing fit: he was covered in a cloud of dust that was still settling to the ground. He didn’t know where he was, his sight was still working on stopping being blurry. It took him a few more seconds for his sight to come back to normal. He looked around and observed he was surrounded by some sort of roof and walls of debris that had fallen, and luckily enough did not crash him but fell around him. The wide door frame connecting the storage to the main room of the shop was the only thing keeping the piece of roof from smashing Malcolm like an ant. He squinted and tried to remember where he was. He was glad the ringing noise had shut down at least. 

His head still hurt like hell, he could feel his brain swelling against his skull and he knew he had hit his head rather badly if it wouldn’t stop throbbing. He winced as he tried to move and felt a sting of pain in his side. Moving his fingers to the back of his head he felt the bump starting to form, his fingers came away bloody but he tried to not panic. It wasn’t enough to be concerned and he knew that head Injuries usually bled worse than this. 

He looked down at his side and his uneasiness spread. He must have hit a piece of sharp rubble which gave him a nasty slash on his side. It wasn’t too deep but it was bleeding and if it wasn’t stopped soon enough it  _ would _ become a problem. 

Once he had assessed his injuries and knew he wasn’t going to die immediately he tried to remember once again what he was doing and how he got there. Then it all hit him at once. The pet store, the earthquake, everything falling off and having an entire building collapse on him. 

Malcolm groaned. He was getting real tired of getting into problems when he wasn’t even looking for them. One thing was knowingly going into danger at work and it was a whole other thing that danger found him on his day off when he tried to relax. He really could not believe his luck. 

He took his suit jacket off and ignored the pain that came along with it. He needed to put pressure on his side to stop the bleeding. It wasn’t too bad but he didn’t know how long he was going to be stuck there... He didn’t know if he was ever going to get rescued but he didn’t want to think about  _ that _ . For now he had to keep himself alive until he could get help. 

Unbeknownst to him, when he took off his jacket, his phone slipped out of his pocket and had landed near the wall of debris, almost falling into a hole between two slabs. Malcolm would probably have not realised this fact but his phone started ringing and that brought him to be aware of it. He heard the ringing from before and only now did he realise that it was his phone that was creating the ringing sound. 

He fumbled through his pocket to look for it and it came out empty. It took him another moment to hear the sound was actually coming from under the debris. He saw his phone on the cracks between the rubble and tried to grab it. It took him a while but he eventually managed to grab it. 

By then, his phone had rang two additional times. He turned it on and saw there were 7 missed phone calls from Gil, one from his Mother and five from Dani. He blinked away the blurriness that was starting to cloud his eyes once more and dialled Gil. 

It rang twice before Gil answered. “Kid, why didn’t you answer my calls? Everything okay?” 

“Gil?” he croaked and coughed twice. He hadn’t spoken since he woke up and some of the dust must have affected him. Only now did he seem to notice how dry his throat was. 

“Bright? Are you okay?” 

Malcolm looked around the makeshift cave he was in and laughed at his situation because, what else was he supposed to do? He was stuck, bleeding and with a probable concussion. “No.”

_______

Gil’s heart skipped a beat when he heard Malcolm straight up say he was not okay. That man was as stubborn as they came and he usually shrugged it off and said he was fine until Gil asked him long enough. But not this time. “Where are you? Are you hurt? Did the earthquake make you get hurt or is it unrelated?” Gil spit out his words as fast as he could. He was worried. 

“Earthquake happened. I, uh,” He was silent for a few seconds before he continued. “Think I got a concussion and my side is bleeding.” Malcolm said as nonchalantly as he could. “Do you know if my mom and Ains are okay? Are you?”

Gil was sure his kid was the sole reason he got grey hairs, not the killers he caught for a living, only him. “Yes they are fine. What happened?” Gil was exasperated that Malcolm seemed to be in great pain and yet always put himself last. He wasn’t surprised. It was a very Malcolm thing to do but he still didn’t like it. “Where are you? I’m currently a few blocks away from the precinct but I can go back to my car and drive to where you are. I’ll take you to a hospital.”

“What are you doing outside the precinct?”

“A building fell and we are helping out. Mal, where are you? What happened, kid? You still haven’t answered me.” Gil mouthed to Dani and JT that he had to go and would explain later. They asked if it was about Bright and he nodded. It was always Bright.

“Well... I was looking for a new cage for Sunshine...” Malcolm started having a few coughing fits so he didn’t finish. 

Gil stopped dead in his tracks and his blood ran cold. He remembered the girl saying ‘ _ This one customer was looking at bird cages. I think he was still inside when it all came down _ .’ Gil silently swore and cursed.  _ No, it could not be him.  _ “Malcolm,  _ please  _ tell me you are not currently underneath the collapsed building I’m standing a few feet away from.” 

Malcolm was quiet for a second. “If you’re currently at that one pet store that’s two blocks away from the precinct, then yes, I’m there.”

“Dammit, Bright.” Gil swore, he hated when his kid got tossed onto danger. 

“Hey, for once this wasn’t my fault. I just wanted to buy Sunshine a cage. Go bother you guys at the precinct for a while and then call it a day.” He let out something that resembled a laugh. 

“I know, kid. I know. Now, let’s just focus on getting you out of there.” 

“I don’t have a full battery and I don't know how long I’ll be stuck so I think I have to hang up now so I can check in later.”

“Okay.” he sighed. He hated that he was going to stop listening to his kid’s voice and he did not know how he would be once the call ended. “Be safe. Stay alive.” 

Gil immediately went to inform the workers in charge of finding survivors in the collapsed building that there was one person alive and stuck inside. He told them they had to find Bright because even though he was alive and conscious at the moment, he was hurt. 

He then caught Dani and JT up to speed. They immediately started worrying too and knew their long day had just become even longer. Neither of them was even thinking about going home until Bright was safe and sound. 

JT called Tally and informed her of the situation. She told him not to worry and to make sure to bring Bright back safe because she wanted her unborn kid to have a chance to meet their uncle. 

Gil called Jessica to tell her the news, which went as well as expected. She was not surprised her son got into yet  _ another _ near death situation but she was anxious and jittery knowing it. She wanted her son to come back to her alive. 

A few minutes later a tow truck arrived to help take off the large pieces of fallen concrete that were near the entrance so they could work towards getting Malcolm out of there. 

And so the long day continued. The civilians were cleared and anyone who needed to go to the emergency room was taken care of. All that was left at the scene were the ones working to get Malcolm out of the crushed building: Dani, JT, and Gil. Jessica threatened to show up but Gil managed to talk her out of it. He appreciated her wanting to be there but he knew how bossy and low key insufferable she was when she got scared for her kids. 

The process was long and stress inducing. They had to be careful with each piece of debris they moved because if they moved it too fast or took away the wrong one, the building could fall down all the way and completely crush Malcolm along with it. 

It was at the one hour mark when Gil called Malcolm again. They decided he was going to check on him every 30 minutes to see how he was doing. They figured a quick call so often that often wouldn’t completely kill the battery. 

“Hey kid, how are you holding up?” 

“I’m doing fine. I don’t think my concussion is doing any worse and I think I stopped the bleeding on my side.” He told him the good news. He failed to mention how it was getting harder and harder to breathe with the amount of dust flying around every time someone tried to clear up the path. He could feel his lungs fill with dust and his eyes were burning at the feel of the ash scratching the inside of his eyes. 

“Okay… hang in there, Bright. We will get you out of there soon. It’s just that we have to be careful-”

“Because if not the whole thing falls on me, I know.” Malcolm coughed twice.

“I’ll call you later to check up on you.” Gil hung up. 

At the next half hour mark he called again and it was a hopeful calm. It seemed they were removing the debris quickly and managed to find a way inside. But when they entered they were faced with another wall of fallen cement that had to be removed to get to where Malcolm was. 

At the next half hour mark was when everything started to go downhill. 

The truck was moving a piece of rubble the size of a car that would supposedly get them inside to where they needed once removed, but as soon as that was cleared, the building started creaking and the roof of the building that was lodged near shifted and made pieces of the store continue falling down. 

Thankfully, no one else got hurt, only inconvenienced with some dust floating around. However, Gil was panicking because he didn’t know - no one knew - if the whole commotion had made Malcolm’s makeshift cave collapse. He dialled his phone, ignoring his trembling hands and waited for his kid to answer. 

“What the hell was all that?” Bright answered after four rings. 

Gil was extremely glad he was still alive. “Oh thank god, you’re still alive.” He breathed out. “They accidentally moved the wrong piece. Are you ok?”

“Well, now the space I had has been crammed in half since half the roof fell here... But I’ll live... Just hurry up.” he mumbled. 

Gil noticed how Malcolm was starting to slur words together and he did not like the implications of it. He didn’t sound good at all. 

The next time he called Bright they were almost done clearing the building. Or so they thought and Gil was looking forward to giving Bright some good news. 

“Gil?” Bright answered the phone and he sounded scared. 

“Bright? What's wrong?” Gil asked immediately. 

“Head.. think it wassntt as fine as I tho’ght...” he gulped and Gil could hear him breathing shallowly onto the phone. “And I can’t breathe… Air is dense and -” he started coughing into the phone for a few seconds before he became completely quiet. 

“Kid, are you still there?” he pleaded. 

“Huh? Yeah...” He was quiet for a moment before mumbling. “Gil... Thank you for bein’ a great father to me. You saved me so many times after Martin was arrest’d.. Tell my mother I love her and Ains -”

“No,  _ no _ . Don't you  _ dare.”  _ Gil's voice cracked. He cut him off before he could continue. He was not about to let his kid be taken away from him this way. “You’re  _ not  _ dying.  _ Not  _ today.”

“Gil, I’m not goin’ to make it. Lack of oxygen is not a great way t’ go, but I guess there’s worse ways... At least it wasn't my fathers doing.” He tried to laugh.

“You  _ are  _ going to make it. There’s a whole crew here working their asses off to save you...” Gil waited a few seconds but there was no answer from Bright. “Kid? You still there?”

“Gil?” He sounded dazed, as if he didn’t know Gil was on the line with him. “I think I hit my head…” He sounded so confused and it terrified Gil. 

“Did you hit it again?” 

“Oh right… I hit my head b’fore...” He was quiet for a few seconds before speaking, his voice sounding too close to a sob. “Gil... I th’nk the oxygen is not enough anym’ore.. messing with.. my head…” He started to stretch out the silence between his words. “Guess this’s goodbye.” He silently rolled out a tear. 

“ _ Don’t _ say goodbye.” Gil pleaded. “Don’t. You’re Malcolm Bright. You are my stubborn kid that can hold on a bit more.” He blinked the tears away.

“‘m sorry.” He murmured before there was a thump sound and then silence. 

“Kid?” He trembled. The line was still on but no one answered for a full minute. No matter how much Gil was calling his name. “Love you, kiddo.” he whispered, even though he knew Bright couldn’t hear it anymore. His throat felt like it had a lump in it and his eyes were threatening to let the tears fall. He passed his hand over his face to clear the tears and tried his best to keep it together. With a last look at the phone, he ended the call. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT WILL BE A HAPPY ENDING I SWEAR!  
> Next and final chapter will be posted Oct 13!  
>  I hope y'all liked it. Please leave a comment letting me know what you thought!


	4. Oxygen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look at that! the final chapter!  
> Hope y'all enjoy it! :D  
> This is for whumptober day 13 BREATHE IN BREATHE OUT (Oxygen Mask)

Gil strutted towards the workers with his phone tight in his hand. He had just hung up the phone after Malcolm stopped responding, he found the worker’s boss. “Is this going to take much longer?” he demanded. 

“Sir, they are being careful and there’s no time frame to know when they will be able to clear everything away.” 

“They can go faster. They have to, they won't save him otherwise.” Gil tried to keep his cool as he was talking but he was _so_ close to losing it. 

“I’m sorry. We’re doing the best we can and I know you are worried about your coworker stuck in there -“

“That’s my  _ son _ stuck in there, and he is currently dying all alone because we weren’t fast enough.” he shouted. His finger was pointing accusingly at the boss and he immediately realised he snapped and apologised. “I’m sorry. I should not have yelled.” He pressed his fingers onto his eyes and walked away before he snapped again.

He met with Dani and JT who were close by, waiting for any news. Gil updated them on his last phone call with Malcolm and tried his best not to break down right then and there. 

JT patted him on the arm to try to comfort him. He knew how much Bright meant to Gil. Hell, that man had warmed into his heart too and he knew Dani’s as well. They were all worried but it was even worse for Gil. The kid was practically his. “Bright’s tough. His skinny ass is incapable of dying like that… He has been through worse so he can make it.” He tried to sound comforting but he wasn’t the best at it. Tally said he needed to work on it. 

Dani just rested her arm on Gil’s hand and looked at him in the eyes. “He’s gonna make it.” she said with full conviction. 

A few minutes later - 6 hours after everything began - they managed to clear the debris to get to Malcolm. Workers began to call for backup and a few seconds later five more men stormed inside the fallen store with equipment. “Call in the paramedics!” someone yelled and a few seconds later two paramedics, who had been waiting by an ambulance, ran inside. 

Gil started to run towards them and all he could think of was Malcolm. He didn’t know if they were going to find him alive or... He didn’t want to think about the other option. His heart hammered against his chest as he drew closer, trying to catch a glance of what was happening. 

He didn’t know who but someone told him to stay back. He didn’t want to hear, he knew he had to follow directions but he couldn’t, he needed to see, he needed to  _ know _ . Dani and JT were the ones to pull him back while the paramedics carried out an unconscious Malcolm Bright on the stretcher. 

Bright had dust all over his face and there was a big stain of dried, brownish blood covering half of his shirt. They carried him away and he was unresponsive. The paramedics started to work on him and put him under an oxygen mask while another inserted an IV to put some fluids in him to fight the obvious dehydration. Bandages were being put on his side after being disinfected. 

Gil ran to where Malcolm was being carried into the ambulance. “He can’t take any sedatives and he is on anxiety, depression and sleep medication. So some of the meds might react to it.” He tried to tell them as clearly as he could but his brain was all mumbled up due to the worry. “How is he?”

“He is alive. The lack of breathable air seems to be the worst for him so we are administering oxygen and taking him to the hospital to get his other injuries checked out and make sure he will be alright.” a paramedic explained. She was the one in charge of giving Malcolm the IV. “We are taking him now. Will you be riding in the ambulance with him?”

Gil took a few moments to respond and then nodded his head a few times. “Yeah. He is my son.” He hopped into the back of the ambulance and stared at the unconscious Malcolm as they drove away. “So, will he be okay?” Gil gulped, waiting for the answer. 

“We can’t say. We need to know how he responds to the immediate treatment and see how long it takes for him to wake up.” she said. 

Gil shed a tear and grabbed Malcolm’s hand. 

Malcolm started responding to the treatment and began waking up a few minutes later. The first thing he did was try to take away his mask and the IV, not knowing what was happening. 

Gil intervened. “Leave that on, it’s going to help you.” He carefully moved Malcolm’s hand away from his face. 

“Gil?” He was confused and slightly alarmed at waking in an ambulance, then it came back to him slowly. “I got out..” Realization dawned on him. “I actually got out.” he mumbled through the mask. 

Gil laughed and grabbed his kid’s hand tighter. “Yes, you did. And you are going to be alright, just like I told you.” 

Malcolm gave him a shy smile and closed his eyes, as he grabbed Gil’s hand back. He  _ made _ it. And for once he was looking forward to hearing his mother lecture him about his danger tendencies and Gil’s protective/worried speeches he usually did when he inevitably ended up the hospital again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Malcolm finally got some comfort huh, Gil will always be there.  
> What did you think? if you like it please leave a comment!!
> 
> Have an amazing day!

**Author's Note:**

> Here's another whumptober fic! I hope y'all liked it. Please leave a comment letting me know what you thought!
> 
> I will most likely write Prodigal Son and Criminal Minds the most for this challenge so if you like those fandoms you can subscribe to my BrightTerror's 2020 whumptober series!  
> If you want to come and chat find me on Tumblr as: @BrightTerror (My writing blog) or @Sherlock-Freud (My prodigal son blog)  
> Have an amazing day!


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